Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take with (a) Skills England and (b) Technical Excellence Colleges to support the provision of high-quality technical education by Institutes of Technology.

Skills England will work with Technical Excellence Colleges (TECs) and Institutes of Technology (IoTs) to ensure they are supported in delivering the skills that local employers need, as aligned to the needs of national priority sectors.

The government will transform further education colleges into specialist TECs to deliver the priority skills needed by employers to help drive economic growth at local and national level. This starts with £100 million, announced as part of a wider construction skills package, to establish ten construction TECs, with one in every English region to deliver the skills required to support the government’s Plan for Change in building 1.5 million homes by the end of this Parliament. TECs will work with IoTs as part of wider sectoral collaboration to ensure skills gaps across regions are addressed and the skills employers need to grow the economy are delivered.